The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-28
RINGS IN TREES.
What Measurements Of Forest
Growth Have Disclosed.
The Rings Declared Not True
Test of a Trees Life.

i Every day some pet theory, long held
and honestly venerated, is being demol-
ished and sent to the limbo Of myth with
Tells apple, Washington's cherry tree
and other old acquaintances. Now the
age rings in trees have to suffer Iimboni-
zation, if the word may be allowed. Mr..
r. w. Furras, an agent Of the United
States Forestry Department, who has
| given much attention to the age Of tree
as indicated by rings, as well as to the
period at which trees of different species
stop growing and that at which the wood
is at its best, has reached some con-
clusions of general interest. He says:
"Concentric or annual rings, which
were once accepted as good legal evi-
dence, fail, except where climate, soil,
temperature, humidity and all other sur
roundings are regular and we'll balanced.
Otherwise, they are mere guesswork.
The only region within my knowledge
where either rings or measurements were
reliable indications are in the secluded,
even and regularly tempered valleys of
the Southern Pacific coast"
Annual measurements of white elm,
catalpa, soft maple, sycamore, pig hick-
Ory, cotton wood, chestnut, box elder,
honey locust, coffee tree, burr and white
oak, black walnut, Usage orange, white
pine, red cedar, mulberry and yellow
willow (nineteen specie), made in south
eastern Nebraska, show that 'annual
growth is very irregular, sometimes
scarcely perceptible and again quite
large" and this he attributes to the diff
| ference in seasons. As trees increase in
age inner rings decrease in size, some
times almost disappearing. Diminished
rate in growth after a certain age is a
rule. OF four great beaches mentioned
N London, there were three, each about
seventeen feet in girth, whose ages were
respectively so, 102 and 200 years. Mr.
Furras found twelve rings in a black
locust six years old, twenty-one rings in
a shell bark hickory of twelve years, ten
rings in a pig hickory of SIX years,
eleven rings in wild crabapple of five
years, and only twenty rings in a chest
nut oak of twenty-four years. An Amer
lean chestnut of only four years had
nine rings, while peach of eight years
had only five rings.
DR.. A NJ Childs, a resident of Ne
braska from 1854 to 1882, a careful OBJ
server for the Smithsonian Institution,
who counted rings on some soft naples
eleven years two months old, found on
one side Of the heart of one of them
forty rings, and not less than thirty five
anywhere, which were quite distinct
when the wood was green, but after it
had been seasoned only twenty-four
rings could be distinguished. Another
expert says that all our Northern hard
| woods make many rings a year, some
times as many as twelve, but as the last
set Of cells in years growth are very
small and the first very large, the annual
growth can always be determined, eX-
cept when from local causes there is any
particular year a little OF no cell growth
This may give large number on one
side. Upon the Pacific coast of North
America trees do not reach the point
where they stop growing nearly as early
as those of the Atlantic coast. Two
hundred years is nearly the greatest age
attained on the eastern side of the con-
tinent by trees that retain their
vigor, while 500 years is the case
of several species on the Western
coast, and one writer is con
confident that a sequoia which was
measured was not less that 1916 years
old At Wrangel, Il western hemlock,
six feet in diameter at the stump, was
four feet in diameter 1872 feet further up
the trunk and its rings showed 432 years.
But in the old Bartram Garden, near
Philadelphia, not more than $50 years
old, almost all the trees are on the down
grade The Quercus Robar, England's s
pride, which at home is said to live 1000
years, has grown to full size and died in
this garden, and the foreign spruces are
following suit Silver frs planted in
1900 are decaying. The great differ
ence in the longevity of trees upon the
: western and eastern coasts of continents
in the Northern Hemisphere seems to be
due to the warm, moist air carried by
strong and permanent ocean currents
from the tropics northeasterly, in both
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which
make the climate both moist and equable
in high Iatitudes In Sitka, as much as
100 inches of rain have fallen
in a year, and the harbor is rarely frozen
J enough to hinder the passage of boats.
In some winters scarcely any ice is seen.
2 - Lumber World.
Taking Time By the F0relOck.